Dedication of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics of the California Institute of Technology

Abstract

This is one of a series of pleasant occasions that have attended the growth and metamorphosis of this school for nearly a third of a century. Each one has marked some accession of value in its progress from a small affair with varied aims and moderate ambitions, to a concentration of effort on the most ambitious plans for the selection and excellence of the few. Sometimes the acquisition has been a material one, as of buildings, grounds and tools; sometimes it has been spiritual and intellectual. To-day we welcome both forms. The changes in the institution have come through a process of elimination of the casual and easy-designed for the many; and of the engrafting upon it of the more difficult, the more costly-and ultimately the more potent, for the few who can measure up to its requirements.